Davidson Makes The Indy Treble!
Lee Davidson took his 3rd win in 3 years today at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in front of 100,000's of fans. The young brit could not hide his emotions as his drove the McLaren over the yard of bricks for the final time.
"It was a great race, the team worked perfect all weekend and I couldn't have asked for more." - Davidson
Davidson started on pole after blitzing his final quali run in the dire moments, he lined up alongside fellow countryman Duncan Hutchison in the Renault, Beyens took 3rd in the sister Renault. Championship leader Dubois lined up 5th in the Williams. As the lights went out, Davidson was jumped by Hutchison whilst Beyens ran wide at turn 1 causing a spin on the grass, he fell down to 19th and was lucky not to be collected in a collision between Baciu and Alfonso Nearn causing the Toro Rosso to limp back to the garage. On lap 2, Davidson's team mate Herman Chang took Hanon down the main straight, then, on the next lap Chang made a carbon-copy of the manoeuvre, this time on Lovett in the Red Bull. Chang appeared to be on fire.
By lap 10, the standings were, Hutchison 1.5 seconds ahead of Davidson with Dubois 5 seconds down the road. 4th was Chang in the second McLaren with the 2 Red Bulls of Whitcombe and Lovett in that order. Season 3 champion Yuuji Kawasie was in 7th and Dan Graham putting in a good drive to hold 8th and the final point. Lap 15 saw Kawasie drop out of the points after being overtaken by both Graham and Hanon in the Midland, also Davidson closed the gap to Hutchison. Lap 18 saw the 2nd retirement of the race when Herman Chang pushed too far in turn 11 and planted it into the barrier, what looked like good early pace paid out for nothing.
On lap 21 Season 2 champ Blake Haswell continued his slump in form when he had a collision with Johnstone in the Super Aguri, Haswell came out of the turn with a broken suspension and could no longer take part, he was in 19th.. the resulting safety car caused the front runners to pit for new tyres and fuel, as the race resumed on lap 24, Davidson was overtaken by Lovett into turn 1, later he complained about the tyre temperature. He then lost another 3 places on the next lap causing concern to arrive on the face of Ron Dennis on the pit wall. However he wasn't the only driver having problems with tyres as Hutchison fell behind the McLaren also having trouble with grip, Michelin were looking ready to take the blame. Lap 35 hosted an early exit for the championship leader Dubois when his Williams collided with the Toyota of Mason at turn 1, both cars were unable to continue and as Dubois climbed out of his car, he was confronted by an obviously disappointed Mason.
By the time all the 1 stoppers made their stops, the order went like this: Hutchison was in first, however Will Whitcombe was right on his rear wing infront of his home crowd. 3rd was Lee Davidson, no finding some more grip with the Michelins, right behind him was Alfonso Nearn in the sole-remaining Williams. Then there was a gap to Horton in the Honda having a very quiet race, the 2 BMW Saubers followed with Kawasie leading team mate Allman whilst Lovett rounded out the top 8. On the very next lap however, Davidson fell to 4th when Nearn put in a brave move into turn 13, the second stops for the 2-stoppers started around lap50 with Hutchison diving in from the lead and Horton from 3rd. This left Davidson in the lead with a little bit of fuel left, he needed to put in a fast lap if he wanted any chance of the win. The McLaren mechanics worked superbly and got Davidson on his way again in a flash and it paid off with the youngster pulling back out in front of the luckless Hutchison.
Once again however Davidson had trouble heating up the Michelins and lost the lead to Hanon in the Midland on lap 52. He would soon take back the lead however when Hanon pitted on lap 54, dropping out of the points. Then an amazing battle with Hutchison took place, they had been running close together for most of the race and it was now going to be decided in the next few laps who would take the spoils, Hutchison managed a daring move up the inside into turn 1 to take the lead as the Renault garage jumped up and down. On the very next lap however, Davidson was able to slipstream up the side of Hutchison down then main straight, then Hutchison, apparently not seeing the McLaren cut over to block Davidson, the two collided with the Renault pitching into the wall and the McLaren spinning onto the grass section. Hutchison climbed out of the car distraught, and walked straight over the pit wall and into the garage. Davidson continued but fell to 4th as the field bunched up behind the safety car, Horton was now in the lead.
The safety car pulled in on lap 60, 13 laps remained to determine the winner, lap 61 saw Davidson move to 3rd after passing Nearn. Then on the very next lap he moved to second after passing Whitcomb into turn 4, he now had his sights set on the leader, Brad Horton. Lap 63 saw Davidson on Horton's rear wing for the first half of the lap, a mistake by Horton in turn 10 gave Davidson a great run and managed the pass around the outside into turn 11, Davidson was back in the lead within 3 laps, Ron Dennis managed to crack open a smile in amazement. Davidson then managed to pull away to take the win, his 3rd at the track in the past 3 seasons, he certainly appeared to master the track. On the last lap Lovett managed to take Horton for second, a great result for the Red Bull team. Behind Horton was Whitcomb in the second Red Bull, Hanon and Nearn followed in 5th and 6th. AlMoman took Kawazie to finish what was otherwise a quiet race in 7th with the Season 3 champ in 8th. In total 16 cars finished with Chris Taylor bringing his Ferrari home 4 laps down.
Oh my god thats funny.
